It’s always fascinating to see public opinion change in real-time. When Hyrule Warriors was first announced on Wii U, fans were mixed on it because they thought Nintendo was too good for the Omega Force Warriors genre. Fast forward to today, fans want more Warriors spinoff games on Switch 2.
As fans wait for Age of Imprisonment, we decided to look back at Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition on Switch and why it’s one of Nintendo’s best re-releases. This game raised the bar for Nintendo re-releases, mixing up the QOL improvements from the Wii U and 3DS versions.
We guarantee that most fans who love this game have spent at least 100 hours trying to unlock everything.
Speaking of unlocking, the Definitive Edition starts pretty strong, as it has the base Wii U roster unlocked immediately at launch. In the Wii U game, players had to play through the campaign to unlock the non-DLC characters, so the Switch version's starting this way was surprising.
Unlockables in Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition have been saved for all DLC characters, as players have to go through the main story campaign and optional Adventure Mode to get everyone. Most re-releases have the DLC available right from the get-go, so to see this game rearrange the extra content as unlockables was inspired. It also makes the slasher replayable for a long time, since going through the Adventure Mode will take time.
Making the DLC characters unlockables is great for newer gamers, but veteran fans who bought everything on Wii U and 3DS might be annoyed. If they don’t rush through the game, they should get over that small hurdle and enjoy this port. The best part about the Switch is that you can play games like these in short bursts.
One huge QOL improvement that makes this release feel truly definitive is keeping the character-switching mechanic from 3DS. With the press of a button, players can change between three chosen characters for the game’s various missions. Not only does this add variety to the hack-and-slash title, but it also makes these levels feel strategic.
click to enlargeThese Musou games from Omega Force and Koei Tecmo are constantly criticized for being mindless slashers. Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition changes that by letting you command party members to head to other parts of the map. This feature can save you some time, since you can command a character like Linkle to head to an area filled with enemies and switch to her so you can take them out.
It’s a feature so good that we saw it reused in the Fire Emblem Warriors games, not to mention Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Expect to see this return in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment.
Having all of the DLC rearranged as unlockables and keeping QOL improvements from the 3DS version makes Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition one of Nintendo’s best re-releases.
We’re sure some fans would have liked to see the DLC immediately available, and new playable characters would have been nice. But even with all of that, this is still a great port that Zelda and Musou veterans should check out.
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